Getting the Most Out of Life

[HKHaugan]

Getting the Most Out of life

Sermon on the Mount (Context)

The context of the Sermon on the Mount is spiritual poverty and its solution. It's stated in the first of the Beatitudes, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven (Mt.5:3).” That sets how we view and discover the riches of the whole Sermon from Chapter 5 through Chapter 7. Spiritual poverty is the root of all poverty---spiritual, emotional, personal, relational and physical. The Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who recognize, realize and receive the insight that everyone's real problems begin spiritually and resolved spiritually. The essence of life is spiritual in its origin, maintenance and destination.

The process of life; the way we make choices, evaluate possible outcomes, handle reactions, engage action and adjust after the action taken; all of it is invisible thus spiritual in its operation. That process is the substance of all morality, in other words, spirituality. Belief, trust and faith are the methods that we use to carry out our choices. What we believe, who we trust are the basis for faith to act. What we believe and who we trust. This is true for every single human being. Everyone has a system they believe will take them through every next moment.

For the disciple of Jesus it is all about what Jesus says and is and our willingness to follow Him. The reason we place our belief, trust and faith in Him is His death and Resurrection. But it is not just those facts of faith, it is what they point to---His presence, His presence in our hearts. No other figure alive or dead has died, been resurrected, been experienced and been followed like Him. He is a package of unique spiritual belief, trust and faith. It is that uniqueness that resulted in His death but was also proven perfect by His Resurrection from the dead.

The life of Jesus is the focal point of everything that involves each of us personally. By 'everything' is meant every choice, every decision, every thought, emotion and action that totals our personal experience as a human being. 'Everything' is what makes up our personality, our character, our mind, heart and spirit. When we place 'anything' of ourselves out there in the world moment by moment it involves everything we are. When we place Jesus in the midst of our 'everything' it is His magnetic nature that draws us to compare ourselves with Him. That is where the uniqueness of Jesus comes in. His life is the measure of every human life. His reactions are the measure of every reaction a human being makes. His thoughts are the measure for the mind, His heart for our heart and His Spirit for our spirit. That life is present at all times in all places.

Whether we are alone or amongst others, He is there.

The very fact of our fascination with what He represents, the incomparable effect He has on us, whether in our avoidance or acceptance of Him, His difference makes us feel guilt and forgiveness in the same breath. How does one handle Him when He says, “I don't judge you (Jn.12:47)” then in the next breath says “That very word which I spoke will condemn him (Jn.12:48)?” Right there is the point. His Word is the challenge and His presence is forgiveness. His Word produces the guilt that His presence absorbs. This is what a relationship trusting Jesus is all about. It is His Spirit, the Holy Spirit, doing the work both of convicting us and forgiving us at the moment of our willingness to accept the conviction and release it to Him. It's called repentance, saying “I'm sorry” or “I really did blow it” or “I've really got a problem here and I need your help.” It's kicking pride in the teeth. I just can't live life alone.

What Jesus introduces is a relational process that replaces our 'alone-process' of always trying to get life right. Trying to get life right all by myself all the time is what is called sin. Sin is tiring and it wears us out. It's hard work and it never seems to get the job done. It's the heart under pressure. That feeling of pressure is called sin. If we do nothing else but start the process of understanding that this is what spiritual poverty is all about, the convicted but unresolved heart that needs to be saved from the pressure of sin. If we can start there then the person of Jesus, giving us a relationship that resolves that internal struggle, is the answer.

Like all relationships it has to grow. That's why Jesus brings His Word into the picture. We need the conviction, the spiritual confrontation that gets us into the real issue the heart faces in every next moment. And it's not just His Word, it's His presence. That's what's so great about coming to grips with our spiritual poverty. Until we begin to see the invisible spiritual reality as the arena in which the self operates we miss the most important element of why we are here, to live eternally.

Eternal life begins for us in the moment of our realization that there's more to life than our body existing and surviving. Jesus is the One who reveals it. What He reveals is that eternal life is spiritual, personal and relational. It begins with Him. He is the source of eternal life and the relationship He offers us is eternal. Physical life is the shadow of eternal reality moving across a temporary universe.

So what we read in the Sermon on the Mount is the spiritual life emerging in the midst of the physical, a relational Son named Jesus in a human body, trusting in a relational Father and motivated by the power of the relational Spirit. Everything in the Sermon is directed at the heart. There is no one to whom it is not addressed. Everything for everyone everywhere forever. Jesus is the Sermon in the flesh. When we accept Him we accept His mind, His heart and His Spirit, the fullness of God Himself (Eph.1:23).

But we also accept His Cross. The Cross shows us our poverty and His riches. It's His Cross that becomes the example of faith as it is lived from one moment to the next. Every word, every action, every movement of Jesus was lived in faith. The wooden beams of His final Cross were the culmination of a life perfectly lived; perfect belief, perfect trust and perfect faith, as only God the Son could live it. So our cross, the one He asks us to take up, is our faith lived out based on His Word. Through the Word the Spirit feels our past, heals our present and reveals our future. In Jesus what was concealed is now revealed and by His Spirit forever sealed. The Resurrection gives each of us, as disciples, that moment by moment assurance, “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Chris in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory (Col.3:1-4).”

Now we know why the consciousness of the Cross and the Resurrection leads us to see:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”